Efficient Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights

“The possibility of re-opening proceedings after a European Court judgement, the decriminalisation of libel and the efficiency of constitutional appeals are some of the steps made towards the full implementation of the European Convention”, said Minister of Justice Nikola Selaković at today’s conference on “The Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights: Our Shared Responsibility”, being held from March 26, 2015 to March 27, 2015 in Brussels.

Minister Selaković stated that all European Court of Human Rights judgements related to Serbia had been translated in Serbia. He added that it was planned for the current year to have the Judicial Academy coordinate the translation of the most important judgements, which the Court had separated in the 2014 Report.

“Protocol 14 entering into force has had a significant impact on the repetitive applications against Serbia submitted to the Court. With this new mechanism in place, over 1,200 cases concerning the non-enforcement of final judgement have been settled”, stated Selaković and added that Serbia was thus contributing to the reduction of the number of such cases before the European Court of Human Rights.

He pointed out that the Constitutional Court in Serbia had adopted the standards defined by the European Court, indicating that similar cases could, therefore, in the future be resolved by the Constitutional Court. “The number of unresolved repetitive cases against Serbia was significantly lower at the start of 2015 compared to the start of 2014, i.e. instead of 11,280 cases, we now have 2,400 cases against Serbia”, said the Minister of Justice.

“The Republic of Serbia is putting great effort towards securing a complete enforcement of three pilot judgements passed in a case against it, as well as taking general measures which would reduce the number of repetitive cases before the European Court”, said Selaković stressing the importance of time for the resolution of the complex systematic problems in the competence efficiency of the domestic bodies for a rapid enforcement of the Court’s judgements.